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Supreme Court move over Nygard expansion bill

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE SUPREME Court has been asked to intervene in the government’s public consultation process over Peter Nygard’s proposed expansion plans for Simms Point/Nygard Cay.

An application for leave to apply for judicial review and for interlocutory relief was filed by the Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay, also known as Save the Bays, yesterday.

The legal action follows the government’s June 18 announcement that it would hold a 21-day public consultation period on the fashion mogul’s applications for his proposed expansion plans.

The environmental group insists the announcement has been futile because the government has not disclosed enough information about the applications to enable residents to respond in a relevant manner.

The consultation period on Mr Nygard’s applications is set to end tomorrow.

Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Perry Christie, in his capacity as the minister responsible for Crown Lands, were named as first respondents; Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis, in his capacity as minister of works and urban development and the minister responsible for building regulation, was named as second respondent; and Michael Major, director of Physical Planning, was named as the third respondent. The Town Planning Committee was also named as a fourth respondent.

The application read: “The proposed judicial review proceedings relate to the actions and decisions of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th respondents and/or each or any of them since June 18, 2014 in conducting a purported consultation process that is fundamentally flawed and procedurally unfair with a view to retrospectively authorising the illegal construction, dredging and land reclamation activities that have taken place in and around Clifton Bay since 1984.”

Over the weekend, reputed international newspapers and magazines such as the UK’s The Guardian and Germany’s Der Spiegel published stories about the impending legal battle, portraying the issue as a fight among environmentalists, the Bahamas government and Mr Nygard over a scenic area that has featured prominently in several major films, including a James Bond movie.

On Saturday, The Guardian wrote: “They provided the stunning setting for a Bond and a Jaws film, and the 1960s Flipper TV series about a super-intelligent bottlenose dolphin. But today the beaches and azure waters of Clifton Bay in the Bahamas are at the centre of a real-life drama that would surely compete with anything Hollywood could invent. The sprawling development of the peninsular home of the billionaire fashion tycoon Peter Nygard and his plans to build a stem cell research centre there, not least due to the 71-year-old’s interest in keeping ever youthful, are said by a campaign group to be threatening an environmental calamity on one of the world’s most beautiful coastlines.”

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